Shared laptop breach of confidentiality?

[badgerpig]

I'd stay well away from investigating your permie colleague, it can only end in grief for you. Unless you've been taken on as a private detective I'd suggest leaving nothing on client co's laptop and keeping your mouth shut. No sense rocking the boat on a gig when the market's this crap.

too right, nothing to see here, keep signing the timesheets, say nowt

[DiscoStu]

yes as I thought any client we work for normally retains intellectual property rights etc and that includes all information on the laptop

if a company does it in an official capacity there’s nothing can be done,
the reason I asked is I suspect a nosey colleague (permy) is doing a bit of freelance private detective work, (from things he's said), if he does it on his own in an unofficial capacity then surely that’s illegal misuse of admin privilege, suspecting is one thing, proving it is unfortunately another......

your right, I think the best advice is dont save anything and delete history, or even better dont use the clients machine for anything other than work

I'd stay well away from investigating your permie colleague, it can only end in grief for you. Unless you've been taken on as a private detective I'd suggest leaving nothing on client co's laptop and keeping your mouth shut. No sense rocking the boat on a gig when the market's this crap.

[badgerpig]

yes as I thought any client we work for normally retains intellectual property rights etc and that includes all information on the laptop

if a company does it in an official capacity there’s nothing can be done,
the reason I asked is I suspect a nosey colleague (permy) is doing a bit of freelance private detective work, (from things he's said), if he does it on his own in an unofficial capacity then surely that’s illegal misuse of admin privilege, suspecting is one thing, proving it is unfortunately another......

your right, I think the best advice is dont save anything and delete history, or even better dont use the clients machine for anything other than work

[RichardCranium]

When I gigged at BT, the PC I had contained loads of application letters and CVs. The in-built modem had been used to dial out as a fax and the log was there.

My predecessor had been using the works phone line to fax his CV & letters every day from about 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. Also, many times during the day, too.

I thought nothing of it until I got a bollocking for not putting in long hours, like my predecessor. According to the boss my predecessor was always the first one in, and always nose to the grindstone.

He invoiced for, and was paid, for all this time.

Git.

This was also the client where they sacked a contractor who continued to fax timesheets to the agency every week. The agency continued to invoice for him and BT continued to pay him for 9 months after he was sacked.

[Sysman]

Yes you can see all their internet history, invoices, PDF of their passport, PDF of drink driving conviction, pictures of their recent party, a few complaints to sky, PDF bank statements, expense forms ,car insurance claims....etc

FFS don't save anything on your work pc and regularly delete your
internet history especially before you go on holiday, and be careful
if you log onto another pc.

Yep. I saw that kind of stuff once. The previous contractor had left a load of correspondence about paying debts off, which I really didn't want to see.

[Bright Spark]

anybody who has admin rights can access the profiles on any PC.

on my current gig some other IT consultants used my pc, I can
access their profiles (C:\Documents and Settings\<userid>)

Yes you can see all their internet history,invoices,
PDF of their passport, PDF of drink driving conviction, pictures of their
recent party, a few complaints to sky,
PDF bank statements, expenese forms ,car insurance claims....etc

FFS don't save anything on your work pc and regularly delete your
internet history especially before you go on holiday, and be careful
if you log onto another pc.

[DiscoStu]

That's what USB sticks are for.

[RichardCranium]

A resounding No.

[badgerpig]

On my current gig I use a shared "pool" laptop owned by the client, the machine has several profiles installed and runs like a dog so I cant vouch for its integrity.

This got me thinking (dangerous I know) would they (the client) have the right to access any information I access using their machine (and via their connection)?

Fair enough if I breached their electronic media policy or broke my Ts & Cs in any way but what if my agent sends me remittance, contractual or financial information to my client email address, or if I access my internet email account from the pool laptop.

In other words do I have any legal right to confidentiality for any data stored or accessed via the clients laptop?

I suspect the answer is a resounding No and don’t store anything of any value on it but was just wondering?